X-23
Biography Origins A top-secret program is tasked to replicate the original Weapon X experiment that produced the feral mutant Wolverine. The project is taken in a new direction: Doctor Martin Sutter recruits renowned mutant geneticist Doctor Sarah Kinney to develop a clone of Wolverine. Since the only genetic sample from Weapon X is damaged, Kinney is unable to salvage the Y chromosome. Kinney proposes the creation of a female clone; her request is denied. Sutter's protege Doctor Zander Rice, whom he has raised after Rice's father was killed by the original Weapon X, is opposed to the idea. After 22 failed attempts at cloning using a duplicate X chromosome, the 23rd sample yields a viable embryo. Although Kinney is allowed to proceed, Rice exacts revenge for her insubordination by forcing her to act as the surrogate mother of the clone. For nine months, Kinney's every move is monitored; finally, she gives birth to "X-23". After seven years, Rice subjects X-23 to radiation poisoning in order to activate her mutant gene. He extracts her claws, coats them with adamantium, and reinserts them back into her hands and feet - a procedure performed without affording the child any anesthetic. Rice creates a "trigger scent" that drives X-23 into a murderous rage when she detects it. Kinney's niece Megan is abducted by a serial killer; she smuggles X-23 out of the facility to rescue the girl. X-23 tracks the abductor to his apartment, kills him, and frees Megan. Kinney is fired when she returns and is escorted off the base. Rice assigns X-23 to eliminate Sutter and his family; he orders her to keep it secret. However, the girl reveals to Sarah that Rice is responsible for the murders. Before Kinney leaves, Rice reveals a chamber containing the incubation pods for X-24 through X-50. Kinney drafts a letter to her daughter, assigning her a final mission: destroy the pods and kill Rice. X-23 succeeds and meets her mother; the two prepare to flee. However, prior to his death, Rice exposed Kinney to the trigger scent; X-23 goes into a murderous frenzy and kills her mother. As she lies dying, Kinney tells X-23 that her name is Laura and that she loves her, and hands her the letter and pictures of Charles Xavier, Wolverine, and the Xavier Institute. Target X After being arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, X-23 awakens bound and gagged in the company of Captain America and Matt Murdock, who proceed to interrogate her about her past. X-23 describes how she traveled to San Francisco and tracked down Megan and Debbie (her mother's sister). Introducing herself as Sarah's daughter, she moves in with them. Although Megan experiences vivid nightmares of her abduction, her family believes these to be utter fantasies. X-23 informs Megan that the man in her nightmares was indeed real and that she killed him. Debbie's boyfriend turns out to be an agent for the Facility who has been instructed to manipulate X-23 into killing Megan and Debbie using the trigger scent. However, the agent fumbles the assignment and is killed by X-23. Facility agents storm the house, led by the woman who served as X-23's handler, Kimura (Kimura abused X-23 in the facility and punished her even if the missions went according to plan). X-23 manages to get Megan and Debbie to safety by handcuffing Kimura to a radiator and then triggering an explosion in the house, buying some time. After X-23 and Megan part, X-23 decides to confront the man who made her creation possible - Wolverine. X-23 tracks Wolverine to Xavier's mansion and engages him in a battle, defeating him via tactics and maneuverability. However, she does not kill him. Instead, she tells him why she came. Wolverine reveals that he is aware of X-23's ordeal, having received a detailed letter from her mother. The talk is interrupted when Captain America comes to arrest Laura. Despite the mayhem in her past, Matt Murdock accepts X-23's innocence. Captain America wants X-23 to atone for the murders she has committed. However, he ultimately frees X-23 in order to avoid S.H.I.E.L.D.'s exploitation of her as their own weapon. NYX X-23 surfaces in New York City and is taken in by a pimp named Zebra Daddy; she works as a prostitute who specializes in cutting masochistic patrons. X-23 continues to cut herself with her own claws, is mostly mute, and proves unable to free herself from the grip of Zebra Daddy. Upon meeting Kiden Nixon, a young mutant with the ability to freeze time when in danger, and Tatiana Caban, a mutant who can take on the physical attributes of whoever and whatever she comes into contact with via their blood, X-23 starts to come to her senses. Although she runs away from Zebra Daddy, he tracks her down. With the aid of her newfound friends and Bobby Soul, Zebra Daddy and his thugs are defeated: X-23 kills him to save the lives of her friends. X-Man X-23 takes a job as a waitress at the mutant-themed "Wannabee's" nightclub in the Mutant Town district of New York. She defends Jade Parisi, daughter of mob boss Don Parisi, against some thugs who berate her for having a mutant boyfriend. X-23 kills some of the thugs and helps Jade escape and go into hiding. The deaths inadvertently implicate Wolverine, prompting his teammates to investigate. X-23 attacks Wolverine on sight, but he eventually calms her down, and she leads the X-Men to Parisi's daughter. After aiding the X-Men against Parisi's mutant enforcer Geech, X-23 flees the scene. This encounter is later revealed to be partially arranged between X-23 and Wolverine in order for her to encounter and ally with the X-Men without revealing her past. She later returns to help the X-Men save victims of a car accident, after which she is enrolled at the Xavier Institute and assigned a room with Rachel Summers and Kitty Pryde. X-23 behaves protectively towards Wolverine, observing him on the mansion's security monitors and even attacking his teammate Bishop after he floors Wolverine during a training session. During one of her sessions at the mansion's monitors, an anomalous energy spike prompts X-23 to investigate. She encounters Spider-Man at the source of the signal mistaking him for an enemy, she attacks him. The pair ultimately team up to save the young mutant Paul Patterson from an alternate reality version of Iron Man known as Iron Maniac. The arrival of Captain America and the super-spy Black Widow help turn the tide, with Spider-Man and X-23 destroying Iron Maniac's equipment using their own version of the classic Fastball Special. X-23 secretly follows Wolverine on his investigation of strange activity in the Canadian Rockies. Ambushed by the Hauk'ka, evolved Saurians from the Savage Land, X-23 manages to escape and alert the X-Men. Traveling to the Savage Land, X-23 and the X-Men team-up with the Savage Land's lord Ka-Zar and his allies, the Savage Land Mutates, to prevent the Hauk'ka from destroying human civilization by exerting control over the weather-manipulating X-Man, Storm. Captain Universe X-23 is empowered by the cosmic Uni-Power to become Captain Universe. She quickly learns that A.I.M. is seeking the Uni-Power in hopes of using it against their enemies. She agrees to help the Uni-Power, and travels with a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent called the Scorpion to a secret A.I.M. hideout. There, they discover information on the Uni-Power that is being transferred to another facility. The Scorpion attempts to copy the information, but is stopped by X-23. The Scorpion is then ordered to take her in to custody, but covers for her instead and allows X-23 to escape. At the close of the issue, the Uni-Power bids farewell to X-23, and parts ways with her.Icarus Decimation After the events of House of M and Decimation, X-23 was one of the few mutants to retain her powers. X-23, having previously left the institute off-panel, returns to the X-Mansion at Wolverine's insistence. Laura is assigned a room with fellow mutant student Sooraya Qadir. She begins to develop an attraction towards Julian Keller, aka Hellion, protecting him while participating in holographic combat simulations created for members of the student body by David Alleyne, formerly a mutant codenamed Prodigy. After Jay Guthrie appears bloodied and beaten on the doorstep of the institute, Emma Frost has the powered students compete in a free-for-all brawl, with those deemed to be the best performers assigned to a new team of trainee X-Men. Despite Frost's attempts to omit her, X-23 is among those students who excel during the exercise, and also receives unexpected aid from Hellion, whom Frost has instructed to take out X-23 from the battle first. She is placed on the team with Mercury, Dust, Hellion, Elixir, Rockslide, and team leader Surge by Cyclops, who defeats Frost's attempts to keep her off the team by pulling rank. As the depowered students and staff are leaving the school, their bus is bombed by anti-mutant religious zealot Reverend William Stryker. X-23 overhears Dust talking to , who had fled the Mansion. Dust intends to meet Jay, but Laura warns her that it's a trap, and takes Dust's place. Donning Dust's burqa, X-23 is shot upon arriving at Stryker's compound. Laura returns to the Mansion and singlehandedly kills three Purifiers who have incapacitated Surge, Hellion, and Emma Frost. When Surge receives a distress call from Forge, X-23 accompanies the New X-Men. Although the team disables the Nimrod unit, X-23 is grievously wounded and is unable to heal herself. In order to save X-23, Hellion convinces Emma Frost to unlock his telekinetic potential, increasing his powers (and thus, his speed) to a level thought impossible by a O.N.E. sentinel guard. This allows them to fly back to the mansion in time for Laura to be healed by Elixir. Mercury Falling While bonding over coffee with Cessily, the cafe is attacked by Kimura and her minions, who in turn capture Cessily. After Laura returns to the school, she and Hellion go off to locate the facility's whereabouts. X-23 interrogates a man at gun point, and upon securing the information, shoots him in the head. Hellion informs her that killing will no longer be a part of their interrogation technique. X-23 and Hellion infiltrate the Facility and after an encounter with Kimura, the two soon find Cessily in liquid form, barely able to compose herself. They are attacked by Predator X, who has absorbed Cessily's liquid mercury skin; X-23 and Hellion decide to fall back, but are pursued by the Predators. The group is once again ambushed, only to be rescued by the Astonishing X-Men and New X-Men. The two teams turn the tables on the attackers, and defeat the remaining facility troops. During the shuffle, the remaining Predator escapes. Sometime later, Emma Frost finds Kimura trying to assassinate X-23, and confronts her, erasing the one happy moment in Kimura's life from her memory, and psychically suggesting that Kimura's assignment now is to hunt down the remaining members of the facility and kill them. Quest for Magik Searching for Magik, the demon lord Belasco brings the students to Limbo. X-23 is one of the students that are trapped there; she is seen trying to fight off her restraints. Her enhanced sight enables her to see the Institute and she tells Trance to use her astral projection powers to go to the Institute. She tells Elixir that Belasco plans to kill David, Dust, and Mercury. Afterwards, she urges Mercury and Dust to fight Belasco. The demon lord is not impressed by her attacks, and, as he declares her soul not worth taking, reduces X-23 to nothing but bones and adamantium claws with an energy blast. He later uses his magic to resurrect her, but then proceeds to torture X-23, claiming he will kill and resurrect as many of the students as he desires until Magik is brought to him. She is then revived by Elixir and at David's instructions, frees the Stepford Cuckoos before slowing Belasco's stride. World War Hulk X-23 goes up against the Hulk. With several other students, she pins him down, but is knocked away when he regains his strength. Attacking him a second time, she manages to blind him with the claw in her foot. However, the Hulk recovers, grabs X-23, and hurls her into the mansion, stating in what may have been a grimly sarcastic manner that he hopes she heals like Wolverine. Children of X-Men X-23 and Rockslide were trying to convince Anole to cut off his other arm so it would grow back stronger. After Anole tells them no, she is later seen being interviewed by Surge about what happened to Prodigy in Limbo. Later, the students of the Xavier Institute are trying to find out which one of them is the youngest mutant on the planet. During the meeting, Surge kisses Hellion, which upsets X-23 and she runs away. Mercury finds her in the girl’s restroom, having cut herself and trashed the restroom in a fit of rage. She wonders what is happening and doesn't understand what she is feeling. Mercury hugs her and tries to reassure her that she isn’t alone anymore. In the end, she is seen lying on the floor laughing and relaxing with Mercury and Dust. Messiah Complex Some of the New X-Men decide to launch a preemptive strike against the Purifiers. While spying on the Purifiers, X-23 manages to impress Armor with her senses. They are ambushed by the Reavers, whose leader, Lady Deathstrike mortally wounds Hellion and after a brief fight, Pixie manages to teleport the team out and are spread between Washington and the Institute. After Iceman picks up the New X-Men, the mansion is attacked by Sentinels. While flying over, X-23 jumps out of the plane and manages to damage one of the Sentinels. After taking down one Sentinel, Iceman grabs her and together they attack another Sentinel. X-23 then notices one of the new Sentinel/human hybrids trying to escape. She stabs it in the back and gets electrocuted, briefly knocking her out. Cyclops, realizing he has to up the stakes and get the child no matter what, decides it is time to assemble the X-Force which features her, Wolverine, Wolfsbane, Caliban, Warpath, and Hepzibah. While in pursuit of Cable and the mutant newborn, X-Force battles Lady Deathstrike and her new Reavers. Wolverine sets X-23 against Deathstrike, who wants revenge for her nearly killing Hellion. While X-23 draws first blood, she is quickly overpowered by Deathstrike and left severely injured. Deathstrike notes that X-23 is no longer fighting back, thinking she has given up (X-23 was listening to Deathstrike's cybernetic systems), but she was merely drawing her in close enough to make a strategic strike to Deathstrike's shoulder, effectively crippling her cybernetic systems and her healing factor. Furious, Deathstrike lunges for X-23, but she dodges the strike and stabs her claws through Deathstrike's midsection, apparently killing her. Later, she traveled with X-Force to Eagle Plaza in Dallas and then to Muir Island, the Marauders' new base. During the heavy battle between the X-Men and the Marauders, X-23 saves Wolverine's life, killing Scrambler just before he scrambled Wolverine's healing factor. X-Force Following the birth of the first new mutant baby since M-Day, the New X-Men were not told because of the Purifiers involvement in the search for the child. Once they learned, Surge led a team to attack the Purifier base in Washington D.C., where they were ambushed by a new team of Reavers, wounding Hellion. Realizing they were out matched, Surge ordered X-23 to hold of the Purifiers while Pixie used a spell to teleport them. When the Sentinels were attacking the mansion, Iceman took the plane to bring the New X-men to safety. Laura jumped out of the plane and attacked the Sentinels. When Cyclops ordered Wolverine to assemble the new X-Force, X-23 was tossed into the mix. As they caught up to Cable, the Reavers attacked, and X-23 attacked Lady Deathstrike, apparently killing her. At Muir Island, X-Force attacked the Marauders and Predator X. When Predator X swallowed Logan X-23 became angry and attacked, and Wolverine finally killed it. When the team, which also included Warpath, met for the first time in the field, Wolverine asked her to reconsider taking part in the operation, since he felt that she did not understand what she was giving up and stated that if she continued down this path she would not be Laura anymore, but X-23 once again. When Laura didn't step down, Wolverine conceded "Fine. Your life". On their first mission, the team's investigated the theft of Bastion's cyborg head from a S.H.I.E.L.D. base. The trail led back to the Purifiers who had reactivated Bastion to help in their holy war against mutantkind. During X-Force's raid on a Purifer base, and after killing many of its soldiers, Purifer leader Matthew Risman brought out a captive Wolfsbane, who had been caught earlier infiltrating the base and was now being held hostage at gunpoint. While Wolverine called for the team to stand down, X-23 decided Risman was bluffing and threatened him. Risman noted that X-23 has the "eyes of a killer", even more so than Wolverine as she was bred from birth to be a living weapon. After Wolverine commanded her to yield once again, X-23 appeared to surrender, but activated a concealed detonator that set off a series of powerful explosives she had planted earlier without telling her teammates. The explosion brought most of the base down around them but Risman was able to escape with Rahne during the chaos, despite X-23 leaving behind Wolverine and Warpath under rubble to pursue them. When X-Force regrouped later, Wolverine admonished Laura for being so reckless with the lives of her teammates and for letting Rahne get kidnapped. Laura remorselessly replied to both accusations by coldly remarking "they survived" and "saving Wolfsbane was not my mission". Later, when the team began to raid all known Purifier bases around the country in search of Rahne, killing and torturing many in the process, Warpath remarked that he couldn't see how Laura could be so indifferent to all the bloodshed they had caused, but Laura replied that she did not understand what he meant. When X-Force retrieved Elixir so that he could heal Wolfsbane, Laura was not seen in the room, even though Warpath and Angel were. She approached Wolverine outside, who told her that he helped train Wolfsbane when she was a New Mutant. When Laura remarked that Rahne should have known better, she realized that her comment made Wolverine angry and he admonished her, telling her that Rahne was the person they should die for. This confused Laura, she went into the forest alone and began mutilating herself with her claws. She caught the scent of Elixir's and Angel's blood respectively, and ran off to help them. She reached the room just in time to see Wolfsbane in her transitional wolf-form standing above Warren with his wings in her jaws. Laura prepared to attack Wolfsbane, but remembered what Wolverine said to her earlier about Wolfsbane being the one they should die for, and instead allowed Wolfsbane to slash her open. Later, after she was healed by her healing factor, and Elixir healed both his and Angel's wounds, she discovered along with the rest of the X-Force that Angel's wings weren't organic, and that Elixir couldn't regrow them. She stood near Elixir while they both watched Wolverine and Warpath try to calm Angel down as he was suffering from seizures of pain. She informed everyone to look at Angel's back as "Something is happening." That something happened to be Angel transforming back into Archangel, who was watching X-Force and Elixir with malicious intent. X-23 stayed by Elixir's side as they both watched Wolverine and Warpath attack Archangel and witnessed Archangel wound Wolverine. Laura was then wounded by Archangel. However, Josh healed her while Archangel attacked Warpath. X-23, Wolverine, and Warpath followed Archangel in a jet, where she commented that Archangel's targets were moving. After the group managed to defeat (or rather delay) Bastion's evil plans, Archangel transformed back to his 'normal appearance'. The X-Men returned to Angel's home, where they attempted to understand what had happened to Wolfsbane and Angel, and also decided what to do with Elixir, who unfortunately knew too much about X-Force. X-23, believed the easiest thing to do would be to kill Josh, but she knew that would not be allowed. Instead, she went behind everyone's back and contacted the Stepford Cuckoos, who were loyal to Cyclops and would keep X-Force's existence a secret. X-23 and Josh requested that the Three-in-One erase Josh's memories of X-Force, thus allowing him to return home without being a risk to the team. This didn't take place and X-Force was given a mission to capture the Vanisher and get back the Legacy Virus he managed to get. X-23 went with Archangel and Wolverine to complete the mission, but it ended in failure. X-23 also didn't trust Domino, even having her claws out when Domino was in the same room with her. When the Vanisher came to Angel's mansion demanding to know what they had done to him, X-23 confronted him with the rest of the team. When Archangel said that clones "aren't real," X-23 didn't appear to care. She took part in retrieving the Legacy Virus that Vanisher left behind. X-23 also attacked the Marauders' clones that attacked them, killing them with very little hesitation. X-23 then told Elixir not to "hold back" against the Marauders' clones. When X-23 tried to kill herself due to becoming infected with the Legacy Virus, Elixir stopped her and got rid of the Legacy Virus. Messiah War X-23 later moved with the X-Men to San Francisco, where they were accepted as heroes by the mayor, having rejected the Fifty State Initiative. X-23 was roomed with Armor and Pixie. Laura left behind a towel covered with blood, which the latter brought to Emma Frost. X-23 was finally reunited with Kiden Nixon. Sadly this future version of Kiden was hooked up to several machines and was used as a generator in order to create a temporal anomaly that disrupted time travel technology, essentially trapping X-Force (which was lethal for them if they didn't return within 33.5 hours), Cable and Hope in that era. While X-23 agonized over killing Kiden or not (Kiden herself asked for death) the matter was taken out her hands when Domino shot and killed her. X-23, Domino and Proudstar were dispatched back in order to save Boom-Boom, however both Domino and Proudstar fell ill due to the time travel. Feeling grateful for saving her friend and ending her suffering, X-23 disabled the time travel devices on the other two and went back in time in order to save Boom-Boom herself. She arrived just in time to stop the Leper Queen before she could kill Boom Boom out of spite for X-Force not killing her. X-23 then collapsed in exhaustion. H.A.M.M.E.R. then stormed the building, giving medical care, while they took X-23 in for questioning. However it turns out the agents take her back to the Facility, much to the surprise of Agent Morales. There Laura is reunited with Kimura, who saws off her left arm. Not Forgotten She arrives just in time to stop the Leper Queen before she could kill Boom Boom out of spite for X-Force not killing her. X-23 then collapses in exhaustion. H.A.M.M.E.R. then storm the building, giving medical care, while they take X-23 in for questioning. However it turns out the agents take her back to the Facility, much to the surprise of Agent Morales. There Laura is reunited with Kimura, who saws off her left arm. Agent Morales arrives and helps Laura to escape. Kimura is trapped under a blast door while Laura and Agent Morales find themselves in a room containing large tanks filled with the Trigger Scent. While inside the room, Laura cuts the claws out of her severed arm and gives them to Morales for safekeeping. She lights a Molotov cocktail of sorts which sets the sprinkler system off. The Facility soldiers finish cutting through to Laura just as Kimura realizes the sprinklers are spraying the Trigger Scent everywhere. X-23 goes feral and kills all the soldiers in her way. She gets to the Facility head's office just as the sprinklers start spraying water, washing away the scent. Kimura manages to club Laura from behind and then kills the Facility head, planning on framing Laura for it. Agent Morales arrives and sets Kimura on fire to distract her while she and Laura make her escape. Morales reveals she rigged the place to explode and they get out in time. The rest of X-Force arrives and takes Laura and her severed claws home, leading into the events of Necrosha. Necrosha As Selene and her army of the dead attack Utopia, X-23 and the rest of X Force are caught in the cross fire. Laura is instantly put on her guard as Hrimhari appears, holding a dying Wolfsbane. The man beside Laura raises his weapon and prepares to kill them both, but Laura stops him, telling him that they are alive and that she knows one of them. Hrimhari asks for Elixir, and is devastated when he realizes that the boy won't be of any service. At the same time, the Vanisher appears, looking for Elixir as well. Later on, we see Laura and Dr. Nemesis attempting to save Rahne. When he says there is no hope, Laura instructs him to "Try harder", her tone implying a threat should he fail. It is then that the goddess Hela appears and confronts the Wolf Prince, asking which life to save. Reluctantly, he tells her to save Elixir. As Utopia lies in ruin, Cyclops tells Wolverine that the X-Men will defend Utopia from any other attack from Selene's forces while X-Force will go to Necrosha to find Warpath and stop Selene. Emma changes Cyclops' orders and tells Logan that they must kill Selene. X-Force teleport just outside of Selene's castle, and Vanisher demands Elixir gets rid of his brain tumor. Elixer informs him that he already removed the tumor, sometime during the events of the Messiah War. As the rest of X-Force prepares to attack, Vanisher leaves them. Meanwhile, Warpath is being tortured his brother and Blink. Vanisher teleports in and saves Warpath but loses his arm in the process. As the ritual to turn Selene into a god commences, a wave of energy destroys every living thing in Necrosha. Before the energy wave hits X-Force, Vanisher teleports the whole team to safety. Warpath confirms that Selene has become a god and that he knows how to defeat her. Warpath paints X-Force and teaches them the Ghost Dance that Ghost Rider taught him to defeat the Demon Bear. The X-Force then teleports inside Selene's castle and each member goes after a member of Selene's Inner Circle. Wolverine and X-23 dismember Senyaka, Archangel wounds Blink, Wolfsbane cuts Mortis' throat, Elixir kills Wither, and Warpath snaps Thunderbird's neck. While Blink and Mortis escape, X-Force are confronted by a giant Selene, who attacks them, but Warpath is able to turn her own demon blade against her, stabbing her in chest and causing her to explode. Two days later, Cyclops debriefs Wolverine on the status of X-Force, Wolverine informs Cyclops that X-23 is out. Pixie Strikes Back The story starts out with Laura along with the group of Ruth, Megan, Hisako and Cessily walking through a school for demons. On their way toward the bathroom Laura is bummed by a male baseball player and instantly she reacts in telling him to watch it. He replies but before anything could happen Megan swiftly pulls Laura away from the situation just as a fight was breaking out. Laura and the rest of the X girls hang out in the Bathroom. As Pixie begins to talk Laura quickly tell her to "Shhh" in response to Hisako telling Megan to "Shut up" due to her being on the toilet. After she fishes Pixie informs the girls that she wants to get something to eat. A conversation breaks out concerning "If there were no cowboys there would be no cows" Laura then as she his handing her remaining money to Megan comments "With out Mosquitoes there would be no Malaria". Right after those words Cessily freaks out for seeing her actual real mutant appearance and all of them including Laura are dressed in their "New Mutant" uniforms. Pixie latter asks Laura to get the maze and she replies asking why she should carry such a large object. Eventually the girls then leave the bathroom and head to get something to eat. Laura then reappeared in the cafeteria having lunch when out of the blue a guy comments about her "Being in love with a gay cheerleader" referring to Cessily. Shocked by this she tell him to repeat himself, and then leaning close to her twirling his hair in her hands he asks "How long have you been seventeen?" Then another guy arrives and grabs the one that was flirting with Laura and beats him slight for doing so and telling him to stop. Then as the Footballers arrive Laura mentions something about a mission just as Megan is stabbed in the back by the Cafeteria Lady. Laura is then seen in the comic being chased by a horde of demons for some apparent reason just after Pixie was healed from her wound. Then some how they skip to seeing the same group yet excluding Ruth riding on a motorcycle type vehicle. All looking very smart they arrive to what looks like the middle of an abandon town. As Hisako says she repeats herself by asking "Where the hell are we?" Laura implies that it triennially is not repeating because she used a different variation of words. Laura then has to debate to Hisako that a repetition and a variation are not the same thing, all the while Megan appears to be looking for something. Them on the scene an man appears with a pipe and as he demands for the girls money X-23 soon pipes up by saying she's got a better Idea. But before any action can take place the man is quickly taken out by pixie dust.Them Megan appears to find what she was looking for as the girls suddenly enter a club like scene. Laura obviously very suspicious of this soon replied to Cessilys comment of her wondering which clubs let all the ugly people in, due to the fact that the crowd surrounded them was unpleasant to look upon. Laura then infers "I always thought it would be in Oakland" and a reevaluation of the situation Laura asks Pixie if they are in Oakland. Finally they managed to enter the rest of the club. Obviously there is loud music playing because Megan soon comments that she can't hear anything. Due to Laura's heightened hearing ability's she tells her that it is not and to be quiet. It is now that we discover that they came to see one of Dazzler's shows. Megan though unable to hear Laura's reply gets closer but by then something distracts X-23's eyes. Instantly she tells the girls to look and what they see are a group of acrobatic dancers basking in rainbow colored light. Something then occurs and Pixie appears on stage and The Prom Queen. She began to make a speech and in it she characterizes Laura and the rest of the girls as her "so called friend" Laura then implies that they are her friends and Megan soon says that if they were they would be happy with her just being happy and stop complaining. The situation gets edgy as Megan continues this absurd behavior all the while Laura says under her breath "Must stop it..." Soon Laura notices Pixies behavior going out of hand as she stabs Ruth's form with her soul sword. Telling her to stop Pixie ignores Laura's warnings, forcing X-23 to grab Megan's wrist and neck repeating herself. Pixie only managed to reply "I can't". Angered by this Laura finally unleashes it on a near by demon by soon breaking his head open. All the while the X Men are in search for the girls and can't seem to locate them. Second Coming X-23 is part of the Alpha Roster initially sent to retrieve Cable and Hope. The Alpha team are ambushed by members of The Right, whom they easily take down. When attempting to interrogate some of the conscious ones, X-23 brutally executes one of them, to the horror of Psylocke, Nightcrawler and Colossus, Nightcrawler was so horified that he pushed Laura away after exclaiming 'WHAT DID YOU DO!" Laura then replies " What needed to be done." This reveals to them that Warren, Laura and Logan might be hiding something from them, prompting Wolverine to confess about X-Force's existence. She then goes with the Alpha Roster again to take down Stryker, whom is killed (again) by Archangel. Subsequently, she is in a car together with Wolverine and Ariel when it is ambushed by a missile. While burnt beyond recognition, both Laura and Logan survive due to their healing factors. Ariel, however, isn't so lucky. She offers her powers to Rogue, when Rogue comes looking for them and then, helps her Roster fight off an ambush by being telekinetically lifted courtesy of Psylocke. She is next seen standing around Nightcrawler's body, looking distraught. When Donald Pierce makes his move to disable Utopia, Laura briefly engages him in battle, with the assistance of Namor and severely damages him but it is ultimately Cyclops who delivers the killing blow. Laura accompanies several of the X-Men out to the Golden Gate Bridge to investigate the anomaly that had formed on the bridge. When the Nimrods came out she and the others did their best to keep them at bay. She watched as Hellion's hands blew up, and when the battle was over Laura, Psylocke and Surge grieved for their comrade. While Cyclops planned to send X-Force along with Cypher to the future to stop the Nimrods, Laura visited Hellion in the sick bay and put her hand on the part of the bed where his hand would be. After that she joined Cable, Cypher, Wolverine, Domino and Archangel who are headed to the future. Powers and Abilities As a clone of Wolverine, X-23 possesses most of his mutant powers. However, since she is still in her teens, some of her powers aren't as developed as those of Wolverine. Regenerative Healing Factor: Like Wolverine, X-23's primary mutant power is an accelerated healing factor that enables her to regenerate damaged or destroyed tissue with far greater speed and efficiency than an ordinary human. She is capable of fully healing injuries resulting in massive tissue damage and blood loss such as multiple bullet wounds, slash wounds, and puncture wounds within a matter of minutes. Her healing factor is developed to such a degree, she is capable of reattaching severed limbs, such as a hand. It is unclear, however, if she is actually capable of regrowing severed limbs or missing organs. *'Foreign Chemical Immunity:' X-23's natural healing also affords her the virtual immunity to poisons and most drugs. She can be affected by some drugs, such as tranquilizers, if she is exposed to a massive dose. *'Disease Immunity:' Due to her highly efficient immune system, X-23 is immune to all Earthly diseases and infections. *'Superhumanly Acute Senses:' X-23 possesses superhumanly acute senses that are comparable to those of certain animals. She is capable of seeing at much greater distances, and with perfect clarity, than an ordinary human. She retains this same level of clarity in near-total darkness. Her sense of hearing is enhanced in a similar manner, allowing her to both hear sounds that ordinary human's can't and to hear sounds that ordinary humans can, but at much greater distances. X-23 is able to use her highly developed sense of smell to track targets by scent with an impressive degree of success, even of the scent has been eroded by natural factors, such as the weather. *'Superhuman Stamina:' X-23's muscles produce considerably less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the muscles of an ordinary human. She can exert herself at peak capacity for about 24 hours before fatigue begins to impair her. *'Superhuman Agility:' X-23's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete. *'Superhuman Reflexes:'' X-23's reflexes are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete. '''Bone Claws: X-23's skeleton includes two retractable bone claws in each arm and one in each foot that she can extend and retract at will. These claws are housed beneath the skin and muscle. Unsheathing them causes her skin to tear and bleed, but the wounds are quickly dealt with by her healing factor. X-23 can unsheathe any number of these claws at once, although she must keep her wrists and/or feet straight at the moment the claws emerge. The claws are naturally sharp and tougher than normal human bone, allowing X-23 to cut through most types of flesh and natural materials. Longevity: Presumably, because X-23 is a clone of the mutant Wolverine, her healing factor will also provide her with an extended lifespan by slowing the effects of the aging process. Superhuman Durability: She was capable of fighting the Hulk without sustaining any severe injuries and surviving energy blasts from Nimrod (Sentinel) (Earth-811). Abilities Expert Covert Ops Training: Raised in captivity, Due to her extensive training as a top-secret operative, X-23 has been trained to become a living weapon. She is highly trained in the use of long range weapons and explosives, and is an expert in assassination techniques. Expert Tracker: Due to her enhanced sense of smell, Laura is a dangerous tracker and has memorized many different scents. Master Martial Artist: She is an excellent hand to hand combatant, with intensive training in numerous armed and unarmed martial arts techniques. Multilingual: Laura can speak fluent American English, French, and Japanese. She might be able to speak other languages. Strength level *'Peak Human Strength:'' Because of her healing factor, X-23 can push her muscles, joints, and ligaments to levels beyond the natural limits of a woman of her height, weight, and build without sustaining injury. Unlike Wolverine, her skeleton isn't laced with Adamantium. While her skeleton, much like her musculature, can withstand greater pressures than a normal human skeleton, she can only withstand so much weight and pressure without sustaining fractures. While not superhuman, she is as physically strong as an ordinary human can be and can lift about 800 lbs. Weaknesses '''Induced Berserker Rage: She has also been subjected to conditioning in which a specific "trigger scent" has been used to send her into a berserker rage, killing anything in sight. Powerful Energy Blasts: Injuries like being hit with blasts of energy from Nimrod that caused her to age can't be healed, if she had been hit with it again she probably would have died. Paraphernalia Weapons *'Adamantium Claws:' X-23's claws have been coated with the nigh-indestructible metal Adamantium. As a result, her claws are virtually unbreakable and are capable of cutting almost any substance, with the exceptions of Adamantium itself and Captain America's shield. Her ability to slice completely through a substance depends upon the amount of force she can exert and the thickness of the substance. Due to her healing factor, the presence of Adamantium in her body does not interfere with her bones' normal function of generating blood corpuscles. Her claws can cut through the Hulk's skin and eyes. Letter In 'Innocence lost' X-23 got a letter from her mother. these are the contents: Please Forgive Me. Even As I Write The Words, They Ring So Hollow. My Mistakes… No, My Choices… They Cannot Be Undone, Much Less Forgiven. How All This Came To Pass… And The Truth About Weapon X. Had It Ended There, Would I Be Less A Monster? Or More? Would I Even Know The Difference? Of Course I Don't Have To Tell You About Monsters. You Life Is Defined By Monsters. Replicating The Mutant Gnome Proved Difficult But Rebuilding Weapon X Seemed All But Impossible. For Every Enzyme, For Every Codon, For Every Sequence We Repaired, Or Even Built Back From Near Nothingness, We Seemed To Be Missing A Million More. But I Felt Alive, The Work The Failure, The Challenge. It Was Like A Brilliant Light, Shining Inside Of Me. I Felt Like My Life Had A Propose. What A Fool I Was. I Was Defiant In The Face Of My Failures. I Was Determined To Succeed Out Of Spite. Weeks Passed. I Was Working On Two Projects, Living Two Lives. I Was Used To That. I Had Kept Secrets Before. It Seems So Incredible To Me Now, That In All That Time, Given Everything That I Knew What I Was Doing And What The End Result Would Bear I Didn't Give It A Second Thought. I Told Myself That You Weren't Real. I Told Myself That This Was Science Not Life. I Was Creating A Weapon Not A Child. I Was Wrong. When I Was Little I Always Believed That Every Thing That Happened To Me -- I Deserved. The We All Get What We Deserve. Maybe I Was Right. No Longer The Experimenter, I Was Now Part Of The Experiment. A Vessel To Be Poked And Proded. To Be Violated. The Certainly Didn't Care About Me...not With A Weapon To Train. A Team Of Physicians, Psychologists, Nutritionists, And Military Strategists Now Ran My Life. They Watched My Every Move But They Didn't See Every Thing. I ASKED For Forgiveness Before. Now I'm Telling You Don't For Give Me. Don't Forgive Any Of Us Fr What We Did. Ever. I Remember Everything...everything We Did To You And You Deserve To Know Why We Id These Things. Your Training Was Designed To Strip You Of Your Humanity. After All, In The Eyes Of The Program, you Weren't Human You Were A Weapon. A Weapon I Willingly Conceived For Them. Our Order Were To Kelp You From Gaining Any Sense Of Self Something They Said Would Compromise Our Ability To Control You. We Were Never To Treat You As A Child Only As A Weapon But Not Every One Followed Those Orders For That I'm Grateful. Sutter Wanted To Complete Your Construction But That Wasn't Possible While Your Healing Factor Was Dormant. you Would Never Survive The Surgery So Rice Was Given Permission To Take What Ever Steps Were Necessary To Activate Your X-gene. He Chose Radiation Poisoning. You Nearly Died That Day. Unfortunately Rice Was Right. The Radiation Worked. Now Nothing Stood In There Way Especially Me. I Only Found Out Later What Happened That Your Claws Were Extracted One By One Hat He Sharpened And Then Coated Them With The Indestructible Metal, Adamantium, Out Side Of Our Body It Was Never Supposed To Be Like That. So Much Wasn't. I Should Have Know What Was coming Not That I Could Have Prevented It But I Would Have Tried. I'm Sorry So Sorry. When It Was Time For Your First Field Test The Target Was Chosen With The Flip Of A Coin. Who It Was Didn't Matter. As Long As The Target Was High Profile And Couldn't Be Gotten To. Sutter Needed To Make A Statement And You Delivered It To The World. I Wanted To Understand Why We Doing This. I Told Martin I Needed To Under Stand Why You Had To Publicly Kill And Innocent Man, His Family And So Many Others. So, He Told Me He Said, It's Simple. You Can't Sell Anything Without Advertising. That's What This Was All About. The Buying And Selling Of Lives For Profit. Not Saving The World, Or Taking It Over. No, This Was About Money. A Lot Of It. Martin Sold You For A Million Dollars A Pound And As You Know By Now, There Were No Shortage Of Buyers. Rice Was Right. I Didn't Matter. Not To Them. Not To You. Not To Anyone. All I Could Do Is Watch. While You Were Forced To Kill And Kill, And Kill, And Kill. You Killed Royalty. Godfathers. Drug lords. Dictators. Assassins Anyone...everyone...for A Price. For Three Ears, You Murdered Without Fail. Every Target They Marked, You Killed. Every Time Limit They Set, You Beat. Every Rendezvous Point They Plotted, You Reached Except One. The One Where Rice Was Waiting For You. When Rice Came Back From The Mission, He Told Us What Happened. He Said You Didn't Make The Rendezvous In Time. That He Had To Abort The Mission When The Team Started Taking Fire. And That He Saw You Die. I Didn't Want To Believe Him. You Never Told Me What Happened. How You Survived Or How You Maid Your Way Back. Why Didn't You Tell Me? For So Long, I Held Myself Above Sutter And Rice. They Made You A Killer. They Were The Ones Using You. But All It Took Was One Phone Call To Open My Eyes And See I Was Just Like Them. They Say In life That We Ar Judged By The Choices We Make They Are What Define Us I Chose To Bring You In To This World. I Chose To Stay In The Program Even After They Stripped You Of Your Humanity And Molded You In To A Weapon. I'm Responsible For Everything That Has Happened For All The Pain All The Death For Everything You Have Suffered Because I Had A Choice When You Had None. And I Chose To Do Nothing. I Always Assumed It Was Rice That Cut You. He Hurt You So Many Times In The Past...he Almost Killed You Twice. I Never Wanted To Believe It Was You. The Damage I've Done...can I Ever Forgive Myself. You Couldn't Stop What Rice Made You Do...but Some How You Managed To Save Henry And Tell Me The Truth witch Means There Is Hope...you Showed Me We Failed...you Are Not A Weapon You Are A Child. Always Remember You Are Not To Blame. You Did Not Pick This Life. We...i Forced It Upon You. The Blood You Have Spilled Is On My Hand Not Yours And Please Understand Why I Must Ask You To Kill One Last Time. Because Tonight What You Do Is Right. Tonight, What You Serve Is Justice. Tonight, you Take Back The Life We Stole From You. I Never Wanted A Family. My Father Stripped Me Of That Desire. He Took My Child Hood My Innocence My Life. And Then I Took Yours. I Became What I Hated And Feared Most And You Became My Victim. But Then You Showed Me Hope. Not When You Saved Megan, But When You Saved Henry. You Showed Me That We Can Chose To Be Something Other Than What We Are Forced To Be That We Can Be Something Better Than We Believe We Are. And, In That Moment, You Saved My Life, All That Matter To Me Now Is That I Save Yours. I Wish We Could Just Run Away W/out Any More Blood Shed. But If Don't Stop Them They Will Never Stop. They Will Do It Again. They've Already Started. After Tonight, We'll Just Keep Moving And Never Look Back. We'll Start A New Life Have A Future Be A Family. I'm Sorry I Waited So Long To Tell You These Things. There Is So Much More I Want To Tell You, And I Will But One Thing That You Must Always Remember No Matter What Has Happened And No Matter What May Come You Are A Child Not A Weapon. you Are My Child. You Are My Daughter And I Love You. I Will Always Love You, Laura. '' ''Your Mother Sarah' Trivia *X-23's watch-timer in her self-titled limited series was always set to 22 minutes. *Was originally made for the television series "X-Men Evolution" and first appeared in the comic NYX. *The choice of her name, Laura, was influenced by Logan. *In the two page spread of X-23 #3, she kills people around the world, the times shown are Craig Kyle's friends' birthdays. *X-23 is a cutter, and has injured herself on a consistent basis using her claws from a young age. *X-23 is close friends with Shadowcat, Rachel Summers, Psylocke, Mercury and most of the other New X-Men. *X-23 has a crush on Hellion *X-23 is highly protective of Wolverine and sees him as a brother/father figure. *Her healing factor can go faster then that of Wolverine's do to the lack of Adamantium in her body, but since she is so young it fluctuates to the point that it becomes slower more often then faster. Category:Characters Category:Clones Category:Mutants Category:Female Characters Category:Beta-level Mutant Category:X-Force Category:Weapon X